Friday, October 31, 2014

A celebratory orgy of the macabre featuring elaborate costumes,
decapitation, dismemberment, monsters, and fake blood EVERYWHERE!I could be talking about Halloween, but I
could be talking about a GWAR show.I’ve
always wondered how Halloween was celebrated on Scumdoggia, haven’t you?Luckily, GWAR’s new frontwoman, the mighty
Vulvatron, saw fit to grace us lowly humans with her presence.So, Vulvatron, what does Halloween mean to
you?

“On Scumdoggia we have a very scary Halloween tradition-
everyone dons large pink fleshy suits resembling Earth humans... then we
attempt to frighten each other with how utterly pathetic we look!Then, we traverse the neighboring star
systems and distribute tiny bags of crack to the recent offspring.The local Starbucks starts serving Pumpkin
Spice Lattes, which draw many attractive young females into our lairs for
ceremonial Fall orgies. It is a joyous tradition.”

No more days 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.No more days 'til Halloween.Silver Shamrock!

There have been certain moments in my time as the Son of Celluloid where I can't believe actually happened. Moments my teenage horror freak self would lose his mind over. One of those was exploitation queen Dyanne Thorne, Ilsa herself, dictating this entry over the phone to me because her computer was broken. You all know Dyanne as the She Wolf of the SS, Tigress of Siberia, and Harem Keeper for the Oil Sheiks in the Ilsa films as well as other classics like Hellhole and Blood Sabbath. As you will read, she also appears in two new flicks this year; House of the Witch Doctor and House of Forbidden Secrets. Click on those titles to learn more about them. So, Dyanne, what does Halloween mean to you?"About Halloween: I hate
to sound too square, but the current dangers associated with the holiday really
spook me. Having made my share of horror
movies, I understand how much we all seem to enjoy a good “boo.” When I was a kid – last century – the fun of
Halloween was awesome. We wore homemade
outfits, crazy makeup, and were safe to knock on every door we could
manage. We begged and pranked and ate
every goodie that was doled out to us.
It was laughable. It was
fun. Now it’s a new age. This time I get to dress like a zombie and my
husband, Howard Maurer, as Dracula as we party with our vampire friends. Halloween can be fun. I hope we can all enjoy it safely. Howard and I make guest appearances in two
new films being released for Halloween 2014.
House of the Witch Doctor (directed by Devon Mikolas) and House of
Forbidden Secrets (directed by Todd Sheets) are both meant to scare the living
beejeesus out of you in the safety of your living room in front of your TV
screen.”No more days 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. No more days 'til Halloween. Silver Shamrock!

At Days of the Dead Indianapolis this year, my life changed
forever.Fred Vogel stormed the
screening room at 4am on Sunday, None of the drunken crowd who witnessed what came
next were ever the same again, for we had been exposed to The Crazy Dave
Tape.It is the most insane mashup of
movie clips, bizarre porn, weird pop culture stuff, and sheer insane
awesomeness that you will ever see.You
are absolutely not prepared for what these mixtapes contain, but you need it in
your live.Check out their website HERE.It carries the Son of Celluloid’s highest
possible recommendation.Anyway, I knew
that I had to have one of the sickos behind this brilliant filth involved in
this countdown.Luckily, JP (the guy in
the gorilla mask) was down for the cause.So, JP, what does Halloween mean to you?

"Back when we were little turds, life primarily consisted of
cartoons and pro-wrestling. Indoors, we had G.I. Joe guys getting their asses
kicked by Cobra Ninja and the Baroness (who would always somehow end up
molesting Lady Jayne in front of Destro), and outdoors we had a combination of
Rambo meets the Road Warriors. Hawk and Animal teamed up with Rambo (under our
leadership, of course) as we fought to regain control of central headquarters.
Central headquarters was a shed with a few lawnmowers in it, by the way. Action
figures, elbow drops, and imaginary gun battles pretty much dominated this
little turd era.

Oddly enough, we never paid much attention to Halloween at the
time. I mean, we definitely went out and scored candy, but the thrill of the
night wasn’t really there yet. If your pal is Spider-Man and you're a fuckin'
Ewok, basically Halloween kind of sucks. Really now, Cobra Ninja would mutilate
Spider-Man (and then have the Baroness rip his dick off in front of Destro) and
The Road Warriors looked like they lived on a steady diet of Ewoks! We always
thought there must be something more to Halloween than oversized chipmunk suits
and candy...

And then we discovered Fangoria magazine. Tom Savini. Creepshow,
A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason; this amazingly scary yet fascinating new
world that we were probably too young for, but completely loved anyhow. That
prick from Lifeforce—you know, the skeleton man with Ronald Reagan's
hairstyle—between him, the father's day zombie, Ted Danson zombie, Freddy,
Jason, Michael Meyers, Leatherface, and that contortionist fucker covered in
tar from Return of the Living Dead, we were a bunch of scared little
turds! Scared, but loving it; now Rambo and The Road Warriors were allies
against Freddy and Jason, who apparently had a hangout spot down our street, in
the woods. Yeah, basically it was our job to secure the street by keeping both
Jason and Freddy at bay with a plastic bat (supposed to be a machete) and
invisible grenades. This still happens on occasion.

Anyhow, this dark discovery helped us transition from little
turds into little pricks; making fake blood with food coloring and Karo syrup
(which never looked right), scaring our parents, each other, and generally
acting like idiots. Then the realization struck like a machete through teenage
flesh—we now had real reasons to celebrate Halloween! You could pretend that
Jason cut your arm off, get fake blood everywhere, ruin clothes and possibly
furniture, and not get in trouble! Sure, the candy was still pretty damn
important, but being able to use and abuse our ever-growing collection of
masks, appliances, and whatever other ridiculous things offered in the back
pages of Fangoria became priority one!!Side
note: I vaguely remember there being a life sized latex zombie-corpse for
sale—via mail order—from one of the companies we ordered from...only back then,
man...now it would be delivered by an F.B.I. agent ready to escort you somewhere
“safe”.

So basically, every Halloween our plan was the same: get
candy, act like idiots, scare anyone wearing Spider-Man and Ewok costumes, run
from older kids who we pissed off, and then get some more candy. Come home,
listen to my older brother's metal records, eat candy, and draw pictures of
Jason, Freddy, and Cobra Ninja doing various things. After the folks went to
bed, the tradition of watching Scream Greats Volume 1: Tom Savini was
generally observed. Either that, or a crappy SLP version of Creepshow I
recorded from Cinemax—mainly because it also had a late night titty-movie on it
called Fiona (which would be one of many recorded during this era).
Classic Halloween memories, man...

Although this golden era didn't last that long, it was
definitely birthplace for everything our mixtapes ended up being—a beautifully
disgusting mess of laughter and horror, stitched together with a massive VHS
collection that started way back then. And for us, Halloween over the years has
become less about candy and more about acting like complete idiots in public
without getting arrested. Well, more accurately stated; the modern Halloween
candy is alcohol, and the results are generally more than we could get away
with any other time of the year. So Happy Halloween to all you party-freaks out
there!”

No more days ‘til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.No more days ‘til Halloween.Silver Shamrock.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Next up we have Jack Sholder. He's best known as the director of Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, but his list of credits also includes such gems as Wishmaster 2, The Hidden, Alone In The Dark, and the excellent Tales From The Crypt episode Fitting Punishment. These days he's at Western Carolina University passing his knowledge on to the next generation. Instead of telling us what Halloween means to him exactly, he sent along some random thoughts on the holiday.

"*I wonder what became of those boys who
dressed up as their mother on

Halloween.I tried
Mom's high heels once. Not for me.

*I remember my son, now in college, putting
so much candy in his pockets

that his pants fell down.

*Rotting pumpkins.Is there anything more yucky than the inside
of a

pumpkin or better than pumpkin pie. Carving a pumpkin is
like making a sand

castle.Eventually
nature takes its course.Celluloid is
still around but I

wonder about digital media. Sent some old floppy disks to
have the data saved

and there was nothing left on them that could be read.

*I hate holidays with an agenda.I prefer ones like Labor Day where you

don't have to do anything.

*Halloween makes me sad because I see kids
walking around in Freddy Kruger

I first noticed Nick Principe in his killer turn as Chromeskull in the best slasher flick of the last decade, Laid To Rest. He also damn near stole the show in the criminally underrated The FP, and I can't wait to see his work in Ryan Nicholson's new movie Collar. He was also one of my fist on camera interviews. So, Nick, what does Halloween mean to you?

“Ahhhhh Halloween .... The horror fans holiday.It just doesn't get any better than the month
of Oct; haunted houses and pumpkin.... well pumpkin EVERYTHING! Going to CVS,
or any store and seeing monsters and creatures cute and scary next to cheap
crap make up and Scream masks. The billboards off the highway of all the haunts
and hayrides makes you wish it was all year round.

In my youth I'd start building my costume at the end of
August cuz, like most New Englanders, we were broke !! But that's fine.Having financial limitations can bring out a
creative side you might not have known you even had. As a young boy I'd try to
put together at least two costumes so I could hit my neighborhood twice and get
double the candy.If our parents were up
for it, and usually they were, they'd take us to the nicer neighborhoods where
they'd dish out the FULL sized candy bars and not the "fun sized"
ones most houses had (and what's with the term fun sized? Why does that mean
tiny??) As I got older the costumes got more advanced, the girls outfits got
skimpier (international allowed to dress like a slut day as some call it), and
house parties and cemetery parties replaced trick or treating.

In my late teens I was lucky enough to play music professionally,
which took me around the world more than a few times and allowed me to
experience Hallows Eve MANY diff places. Almost booking our tours around the 31st
and making sure we were some place spooky for that amazing day.... like seeing
the Cramps in Austin. Or how about the Michael Graves era Misfits in New
Orleans? Or even better Paris France one year for Samhain.But no
matter where it was around the globe, the best place in the WORLD for Halloween
is only 30 mins away in Salem, Mass. For the entire month of Oct, Salem embraces
the evil "witchery " that took place in the fall of 1692 where over
30 young women (and a few men) met their fate by hanging, being burned alive, or
being pressed (held under rocks until it crushed all your organs and you bled
to death internally). But now on Halloween
it is just a GIANT party.The
cobblestone streets are blocked off from traffic and thousands from all over
come in costume to drink and be merry and have fun. And then the weekend before Halloween is Rock
n Shock.It’s my favorite horror
convention in North America because they combine my two fave things, horror
films/culture and punk/hardcore/metal music ! At the Palladium, bands are
playing from late afternoon into the wee
hours of night and at the DCU center horror vendors and celebs mingle with fans
of the macabre ! If you've never been, it's a sight to behold.

I get asked a lot if, since I play monsters year round and
spend countless hours in the make-up chair, why would I want to do that to
myself on my days off? Why??? F@$king why??? Because I LIVE for this stuff !!!
The entire reason I do what I do is because I'm STILL the lil kid planning his
costume in August.I STILL want be someone else for a night I
LOVE a great costume that you can stand in front of someone you've known your
whole life and they can't recognize you ! You aren't who you were on Oct 29th.You're whoever you want to be. It's a silly
reference, but I remember an old episode of Beauty and the Beast (with Ron
pearlman and linda Hamilton ) where the only night out of the year that the
beast could walk freely in the streets was Halloween.All he would hear back instead of screams was
"cool costume." And maybe deep down that's how I feel, cuz any other
night I'm considered a freak. But on Oct
31, I just have a cool costume and it's the freaks night to be themselves. So
here's to all the freaks..... Have a great Halloween.”

Ellie Church is a bad ass. Plain and simple. This former Tromette is well on her way to cementing herself as one of the queens of the independent horror scene. This year saw the release of the fantastic Time To Kill, with Ellie in the starring role, and with upcoming turns in Adam Ahlbrandt's Hunters and the Found spin-off Headless, the future looks just as good. She's also a really sweet chick and one of the people I always look forward to seeing at cons. So, Ellie, what does Halloween mean to you?

"Halloween to me means shenanigans. Being mischievous. As a kid, whether your parents
were with you or not, you always felt like you were up to no good...and that
was ok. I still get that same feeling as an adult, a kind of giddy childish feeling.
I mean, I could toilet paper someone's house any other day , and while I would
probably enjoy it, still not have the same feeling as I would doing it on
Halloween night. You've got to have that smell in the air for it to work.
Harmless mischievous fun, that's what Halloween means to me."